Vogue Business: Many find the term ‘Oriental’ offensive. Why are perfumers still using it?

Excerpt from a longer article from a Vogue Business August 7 2023 article by BY RAE NGUYEN

TikTokers are adding to calls to decolonise perfumery, with a focus on eradicating use of ‘Oriental’ as a scent classification and in marketing copy. But while some brands are responding, others are resistant to change.

… In 2020, a group of perfumers of colour formed a collective called Future Olfactives, which aimed to increase the visibility and foster the growth of underrepresented BIPOC members of the fragrance community. “[We] publicly talked about how we’d like to reframe the eurocentric standards of perfumery [and] to transform the industry with new nomenclature,” explains founding member Dana El Masri, who is also founder of Jazmin Saraï Parfum. Other members included Yosh Han, founder of the Yosh perfume brand. Although the group is no longer active, its database was transferred to Scent Festival, an online resource that aims to decolonise perfumery through education.

In 2021, Scent Festival launched a Change.org petition to “Reclassify ‘Oriental’ and ‘Floriental’ (floral oriental) in the fragrance industry”. It argues that “these terms are outdated, derogatory and offensive”, adding: “These words were formed through the lens of colonialism when Anglo-European countries viewed themselves as the centre of the world and everything else was East; sensual, exotic and fetishised.” …
Yosh’s Han, who also provides consultancy services for clients including Liberty London, Barneys New York and Anthropologie USA, points out that the perfume industry is still primarily based in Europe — unlike fashion, for example, which is more global. “Even though historically, the French have dominated fashion or Italy, there have been such strong powerhouses from Japan, Korea, China,” she explains. …

Colonialism is deeply rooted within the industry, partly because many raw materials come from “countries that were colonised and still experiencing the aftermath,” Han adds. “When you have fragrance suppliers who dictate the price in their fancy air conditioned offices while the farmers have no power over those costs, the dynamics are not favourable to POC.” …
Education will play an important role in bringing about change, experts agree. The top perfume schools in France have pushed a historical narrative that “Europe is the cradle of modern perfumery”, which has led to “erasure of thousands of years of scent culture from Asia, Africa and elsewhere”, Han says. Brands also have a responsibility to educate their teams. “This should be part of [brands’] diversity and inclusion programmes,” says Yosh’s Han.

Companies also need to examine the diversity of senior management teams. “We need to educate and bring people up so that we can have more voices,” Han says. “Those voices matter.”